Tonight I am having my mother-in-law and her charming boyfriend over for dinner with our family, the first "dining" company at our new home. (Our dear friends took us out for dinner in the neighborhood this past weekend which was lovely, but this will be the first meal I've actually cooked for anyone in the new house.)
Anyone who knows my mother-in-law can tell you that she is, hands down, the best cook in the world. This is fantastic for every person lucky enough to sit at her table for a meal, and also a bit tricky for the less-than-stellar cook married to her eldest son... me. She has set the bar almost impossibly high!
I am grateful that my husband did not highly prize cooking as a MUST-HAVE skill in his wife... (I would never have made the cut!) and instead graciously overlooks my well intentioned missteps. He frequently cooks for himself anyway since he prefers to eat grilled shrimp and salad multiple nights of the week.
In truth though, he is easily the best chef here. His mother has taught him very well, and he can whip up an absolutely sensational red sauce, mouth watering mole, wonderful homemade tacos with his specialty guacamole... he has at least ten really outstanding dishes in his repertoire that I could happily eat any night of the week. I'm a lucky lady.
The irony is that I actually love to cook too. I even kept a blog for over a year about my own cooking experiments. I really did! It just takes me a long time to figure out how to make anything new and do it well.
The fact that I have been gluten free for the better part of three years adds a special "extra" challenge to the process, as many of the things that my husband and his family love to eat involve wheat flour. Which is fine, I typically cook the "normal" way for them and then make something different for myself to supplement the dinner. The only difficulty in this process is that since I don't eat gluten, I often can't taste a sauce or cookie batter, etc. to see if it needs more or different spicing. I just have to follow the recipe and pray that it tastes okay to everyone else.
I love going to my mother-in-law's house for dinner and am considerably more anxious when inviting her to our home. No-one has to tell me that the quality of the food here is not even close to her level of excellence. It's pretty obvious.
My mother-in-law tries kindly to give me cooking tips and has given me many a cookbook as a Christmas present. I am actually very grateful for these, as I realize that she is sharing something very special with me - her love of food, wine and dining in company - and that for her sharing food is sharing love. I prize the cookbooks she has given me over the years, and pore over them looking for new things to try.
When she's coming over though I really don't want to experiment too much so I search even more ardently for the fool-proof meal... something reasonably delicious that I can create on my own that won't embarrass any of us too much. It also can't take the entire day to cook because I've got a lot of other things on my metaphorical plate today (sorry for the pun, couldn't resist!) in taking care of her three grandchildren and trying to get the house clean enough to welcome guests.
It has been chilly lately and today I am thinking soup might be a good call. A hearty Winter soup with a loaf of fresh bread and a big salad? This seems like something I can't mess up too easily, as long as I can find the right soup recipe.
I'm scouring the pages of her most recent gift to me, "Gourmet Today" edited by Ruth Reichl who happens to be one of my favorite cooking gurus. Anyone who loves food has got to check out back episodes of the "Diary of a Foodie" show that she hosts around the world... it is mouth-wateringly amazing.
I was looking for soup but I've initially found a pork loin recipe that sounds very tasty. My mother-in-law love pork, so I'm tempted to go with her favorites. Still, there are more than a few steps in this recipe that make me feel anxious in the pit of my stomach already. First off, it calls for a meat thermometer. I don't think we have one of these and I've definitely never used one before. Hmmmmm....
Next, the recipe calls for some fancy action right at the end... "straddle roasting pan across two burners, add stock and deglaze the pan by boiling, scraping up brown bits, for 1 minute.... bring to a boil while whisking". I am actually starting to sweat just thinking about this.
Maybe it is time to look for another less anxiety producing recipe.
We could go with the Wine-Braised Chuck Roast with Onions. That sounds easy enough, but it is also very similar to one of my go-to recipes (Red Wine Pot Roast) and so they may surely be tired of eating roast at my house by now. It would also necessitate another trip to the groery store. Still, this is something to keep in mind. It is very difficult to ruin a roast.
Oh wow, I've just discovered a 'must-have' called Arancini (Sicilian Stuffed Rice Balls). This is an appetizer made with rice, mushrooms, Italian sausage, eggs, bread crumbs (thankfully they do make gluten free bread crumbs) and ground beef chuck. I think I'm in love... but I don't really have the chops necessary to manage the "8 cups of vegetable oil for deep frying" and deep fat thermometer. I am already picturing myself accidentally setting the kitchen on fire. I think this one will have to wait until a weekend when my husband is around with the fire extinguisher handy.
I'm liking the sound of the Spinach Stracciatella soup though. This one is gluten free and takes 20 minutes from start to finish. I've just got to make sure I have the 3 cups of homemade chicken stock and we'll have our starter!!! This simple soup features chopped spinach, Parmigiano-Reggiano and chicken stock along with a few eggs and spices. Can do!
All right, so now I'm looking for an appropriate main course to complement my spinach soup. I think I may have stumbled across something that will work - Risotto with Asparagus, Peas and Mushrooms. These are actually four foods that my children can agree upon, which is almost a miracle. The recipe calls for morels, which I assume are a type of mushroom ("fresh, trimmed") ??? and dry white wine which I will need to purchase. Still, all in all I think I've got a healthy, user-friendly meal that I can put together in about 90 minutes.
I've managed to while away most of the morning reading through the pages of this amazing cookbook. (Reading + Food = 2 All Time Favorite Activities!) Looking around our home I remember that there is a lot more to having family over to dinner than just the meal. I'd better get a move on... plenty of sweeping, mopping, scrubbing, washing and laundering to do before I pick up my preschooler and we all head to the grocery store to get ingredients for tonight.
Seven hours until dinnertime and I wonder if I can get it all done! I hope it's not terrible to admit that I wish the day was over already, at least the cooking and cleaning part... so that I could get on with the business of enjoying a lively dinner table conversation. I am always nervous and stressed out before having company over, but really love it once our friends or family are actually here. (This is the part of me that scored extraverted on the Myers-Briggs personality test ~ but only 19% extraverted compared with my husband's whopping 81%.)
I'm going to leave it to my uber-talented bank card to come up with a classy dessert for the seven of us. Thankfully, VISA is pretty handy around the kitchen.
